Malcolm X a self educated man became a powerful black leader 6/6/20
This is a very well written about his childhood but when it gets onto the religious dogma I lost interest, but his background experience is the most significant part of the story.
No man aroused fear and hatred in the white man as Malcolm, but inspired self respect of downtrodden blacks. Marcus Garvey wanted blacks to leave the US and set up in Africa. The Adventist were the friendliest whites.
1937Joe Louis knocked out James Bradock to become the heavyweight champ of the world.
Living in Lansing Minnesota he was in a school with few blacks and the only black in his class and he got the highest grades. The English teacher helped him a lot but when he sat with him and discussed his future carreer he said that he would like to be a doctor or lawyer. The teacher said for a Negro he should be realistic, he was good at wood work and perhaps should become a carpenter. White kids were encouraged to go ahead with the courses they had chosen. This so upset him and destroyed his joiu de vive that he wrote to his half sister Ella asking if he could come to Boston and arrived at the back of a Greyhound bus in 1940. He arrived in Waumbeck, Boston snooty blacks lived doing menial work and had to rent out rooms to make ends meet.
1770 Boston Massacre'. Crispus Attacks. A statue stands in Boston Common of this man who was the first to fall and was a negro.
He manages to get a job as a shoe shine boy and janitor in the men's toilet of the Roseland State Ballroom and manages to hear live Glen Miller. Benny Goodman band, Duke Ellington, Count Basie band, Lionel Hampton, Cootie Williams, Jimmie Luceford.There were nights for blacks
Peggy Lee was discovered by Mrs. Benny Goodman.
After Pearl harbour there was plenty of work on trains, in the kitchen and selling sandwiches, this way he could travel from Boston and saw how big and poor the black neighbourhood in Washington was. In New York he is able to go to Harlem and hear Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Eckstine ,Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington.
The Teresa hotel Harlem for blacks was where Fidel Castro stayed when he visited the UN and was restricted to NY and achieved a psychological coup over the State Dept. Harlem was officially of limits to white servicemen during the war.
1935 There were riots in Harlem and this left only a trickle of income coming. The great Harlem days were between 1920 and 1935 Criminals, the law and politicians were inseparable partners.
Malcolm was successful in every kind of hustle, drugs, prostitution and the burglary. The problem in burglary was fencing the stolen loot. A very good watch he took to have repaired and when he came for it was arrested.
1946 at the age of 21 he was given 8 years sentence because he had been working with white girls who acted as "finders" checked out the rich homes. First sent to Charlestown prison built 1805 In 1948 his sister got him transferred to Norfolk Mas. where a millionaire Parhurst had donated his book collection and he was able to spend long hours every day reading and in a debating club and got a proper eductaion. He also became a member of the Nation of Islam under Elijah Muhammad.
1831 in Virginia .Nat Turner a slave who set up an gang of 70 slaves who killed 57 whites and it took 2 months to hunt him down.
Schopenhauer, Kant and Nietzsche he says set up the groundwork for Nazi philosophy.
Books he read included HG Wells, Will Durant and Pierre van Paassens "Days of Our Years". Loom of Language by Frederich Bodner
1951When he got out he went to Detroit. Became a Muslim minister. Married had 6 children.
1957 Hinton Johnson tried to stop police beating a black man and was he beaten by NY police, Macolm X arrived and a big group went into the police station and insisted that a ambulance be called. In the end the NYPD were forced to pay $70000 damages.
Malcolm discovered that Elijah Mahomed had raped and had children from a number of women and so broke with him He and a large group who felt this way opened his other Mosques.
He initially called all whites devils but over the years his outlook matured especially after his visit to Mecca. Africa, France and the UK when he saw the black situation in a different perspective.
1965 assasinated. At Audubon Ballroom Harlem. A nation of Islam member was jailed but there are dozens of conspiracy theories that the police wanted him dead as he was too powerful a figure.
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